Pittsfield Schools, Teachers Union Agree To New Three-year Contract
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The two sides reached agreement in June and spent the summer ironing out language. On Wednesday, the School Committee accepted the settlement, which will run from the beginning of the school year this year until the end of the 2017/2018 school year.
The deal with the United Educators of Pittsfield includes the merging of two separate salary scales, raising the starting salaries, assurances for new technology, and increased accountability on the usage of sick time.
"I'm very happy. I think it is a fair deal and gives us stability for the next three years," said UEP President Brendan Sheran.
The more complicated success, Sheran said, is the merging of two separate pay scales, and then raising the minimum salary for new hires. Sheran said teacher salaries were falling behind and last year ranked 10th out of 12 school districts.
The salary scale was crafted in such a way that one and a half steps were added to the matrix at the top — thus raising the maximum salary — and then also removing two steps from the bottom to lift the minimum salary.
"By eliminating the bottom, the minimum salary goes up," Sheran said. "One of our goals was to increase and be more competitive all around."
The president said the last three years the teachers had two disparate pay scales, one for new hires and another for the more veteran teachers.
"It was very confusing to have two different salary scales," said School Committee member Joshua Cutler, who sat on the negotiating team.
All of the teachers will now work under one compensation plan and any teachers who would have lost out on their raise were moved up accordingly. The step increases now provide a 1 percent raise in each of the three years of the contract.
Cutler added that the district saves some $100,000 through attrition and differences in the scale.
The minimum starting salary will be raised to $40,000, a number Sheran feels will help make the schools attract better and more diverse staff. Overall Sheran said the new pay schedule gives "flexibility" for all levels.
"We saw most of what we were doing as trying to fix the problems we have," Sheran said.
Contributing to the salary increases each year is a continued link to state Chapter 70 education funding. Teachers will be given raises on top of the 1 percent based on the state support.
"If we get a positive result from Beacon Hill then our teachers can share it, too," Cutler said. "By tying raises to that I think shows everybody shares in the pain and the joy."
Cutler said it has been increasingly difficult to plan for budgets because of uncertainty on Beacon Hill. This alleviates that concern somewhat.
If Chapter 70 funding increases less than $250,000, teachers will receive a quarter percent raise. If Chapter 70 is increased between $250,000 and $500,000 it would mean a .5 percent raise. Up to $750,000 would mean an increase of .75 percent and above that would give teachers an additional 1 percent.
This year, teachers will see .5 percent added to their step raised — making a total raise of 1.5 percent. That is for all salaries.
The sick leave policy was also changed to increase accountability and was the major talking point for the school's side.
"This biggest issue on our side was stopping the abuse of sick time," Cutler said.
The School Committee has been seeing a rise in spending on substitute teachers, sometimes going over budget. The new agreement gives the human resources department the ability to withhold step increases if there are more than nine undocumented absences. An undocumented absence is one without a doctor's note.
"We have the right to request [a doctor's note] if there is a pattern of three," Cutler said.
The language says "may" so administrators do not have to call for a note. The agreement will also reward teachers for showing up.
"In order to get something, we have to give a little bit, too. We added an attendance incentive," Cutler said.
The incentive gives teachers two days that can be paid out when they leave the district if they have less than two undocumented absences in a year. If there are three, the teacher can get one more day at the end.
"It incentivizes people to come to work," Cutler said.
In the last contract, teachers had six days for family illness and nine days for personal.
"Now it is a lump of 15 and you use them in the way you want to use them," Sheran said.
Additionally, the parental leave policy was changed to give time to teachers who adopt children and non-birth parents. Previously, adopting parents weren't able to use parental leave.
"The parental and sick leave policy made it more flexible and accountable," Sheran said.
For technology, the contract gives the union assurance that teachers will have the appropriate software on their computers. Sheran said each teacher has been issued a laptop and the technology department has upgraded many of those laptops and replaced some others. The wording in the contract gives the teachers assurance that they won't have to work on broken computers, like a 2006 laptop that barely functioned and couldn't run programs the teacher needed.
"Our laptops and computers hadn't been updated in awhile," Sheran said. "The investment in technology is good for both groups."
A Joint Labor Management Committee will also be formed to deal with specific issues such as elementary school recess, co-curricular stipends, and evaluations.
Both sides credited the agreement to "interest-based bargaining" instead of collective bargaining. Essentially, all involved laid out their issues at the first meeting and collectively they all worked toward an agreement that solves the issues.
"We feel very satisfied with the way it came out," Cutler said. "Everybody at the table liked and respected everybody else. There were no shouting matches."
Sheran said his bargaining team consisted of representatives from all levels of schools and from different disciplines. All of them came with long histories in the schools. The school's team consisted of Cutler, Chairwoman Katherine Yon, and Daniel Elias.
"Getting this done is a testament to the team," Sheran said. "We are all teachers here and we are representing ourselves."
The contract replaces the one that just expired in August. The teachers have only been working without a contract for a few weeks and this contract is be in place retroactively from the expiration of the last one.
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